Displaceable barrier

ABSTRACT

A vending machine apparatus comprising a housing defining an internal cavity and an article storage compartment positioned inside the cavity. The article storage compartment may have a cooling unit associated therewith for cooling the article storage compartment. The article storage compartment is subdivided into a plurality of article storage sub-compartments, each sub-compartment having an opening at a dispensing end thereof for passage therethrough during a dispensing operation of articles stored therein. An air barrier arrangement is positioned so as to be in common with the dispensing end of a plurality of said sub-compartments, for separating the interior of the sub-compartments from the remainder of the interior of the internal cavity, the air barrier arrangement having flaps that operate individually with respective ones of said sub-compartments, so as to allow articles stored in the sub-compartments to pass therethrough during the dispensing operation.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Continuation-In-Part application, and claimspriority under 35 USC 120, of International Application PCT/US03/06051,filed on Feb. 26, 2003, entitled “Thermal Barrier For A RefrigeratedCompartment In A Vending Machine”, which was filed in English anddesignated the US, and which itself claimed priority under 35 USC 119 ofU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/360,128 filed Feb. 26, 2002,entitled “Thermal Barrier For A Refrigerated Compartment In A VendingMachine”. The entire disclosure of these patent applications areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus forproviding a displaceable barrier at an open end of an article storagecompartment. More particularly, the present invention provides adisplaceable barrier, such as a plurality of displaceable flaps, acrossan access opening of an article storage compartment in a refrigerated(i.e., frozen or merely cooled) vending machine. The flaps help preventmixing of the thermal environments on opposite sides of the displaceablebarrier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitutepart of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments and detailsof the invention, and, together with the general description given aboveand the detailed description given below, serve to explain features ofthe invention.

FIG. 1 is a front section view of a vending machine useful forillustrating an environment for the present invention. The vendingmachine includes a refrigerated article storage compartment, and has adisplaceable thermal separating door for separating the access openingin the dispensing end of a refrigerated article storage compartment fromthe remainder of the interior of the vending machine.

FIGS. 2 and 2A illustrate a perspective and detailed view of adisplaceable barrier arrangement held in a position across thedispensing access opening of the refrigerated article storagecompartment shown in FIG. 1, the displaceable barrier being constructedin accordance with the principles of the invention.

FIGS. 3 and 3A illustrate a perspective and detailed view of the FIG. 2arrangement, with the barrier shown being held in a raised position, inaccordance with an aspect of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view a the displaceable barrier shownin FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 5 illustrates one technique for manufacturing the displaceablebarrier shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6A illustrates a lengthwise cross-section view of the displaceablebarrier shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6B illustrates a lengthwisecross-section view of an alternative embodiment thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates front section view of a vending machine 10 useful forillustrating an environment for the present invention. Machine 10 has anouter housing 11 and hinged front door (not shown to aid clarity) forforming a cabinet for the vending machine. Machine 10 may substantiallycorrespond in structure and operation to the vending machine shown in myprior U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139 (incorporated herein by reference), andincludes the conventional components of such as machine, such as adisplay 1, selection keypad 2, bill validator 3, credit card reader 4,coin insert slot 5, coin return lever 6, and coin return chute 7 and acontrol mechanism therefore, not shown. Thus only basic details relatingto the vending machine are provided herein.

As described in my prior patent, machine 10 includes therein arefrigerated insulated compartment 12 for storing articles to be vended.It is noted that compartment 12 may be of the “static” type, which hascold generating evaporator coils distributed along and in thermalcontact with the inside walls which form the main interior volume ofcompartment 12, and heat dissipating condenser coils thermally insulatedfrom the evaporator coils and distributed along and in thermal contactwith the walls which form the outside perimeter of storage compartment12. With this type of freezer, no fans are required for therefrigeration system since the cooling effect of the evaporator coils isdirectly radiated to the interior of compartment 12, and the heatgenerated by the refrigeration system is directly radiated by theoutside walls of compartment 12 to the external environment. A combinedthermocouple and temperature indicator 8, of conventional design andoperation is used by refrigerated compartment 12 for maintaining andindicating the set temperature. Such chest freezers are commonlyavailable from any one of many well known sources for appliances. Othertechniques for developing a cooled environment in compartment 12 couldjust as easily be used with the present invention, such as what isconventionally known as a forced air system, having a separaterefrigeration unit for developing cooled air, which cooled air is thendirected, using for example air ducts, to the interior of compartment12.

In one embodiment, and as shown in greater detail in FIGS. 2 and 3,refrigerated compartment 12 has associated therewith a displaceablethermal separating door 14 positioned over an opening 13 in one side, inthis case the topside, of compartment 12. Door 14 provides a thermalseparation at the opening 13 between the remainder of the interior ofthe vending machine and the interior of compartment 12. My above-notedU.S. Pat. No. 5,240,139 shows and describes several differentembodiments for door 14, including the single-piece hinged door as shownherein, as well as several “sliding” door designs. It is also noted thatan “air curtain” can also form a thermal barrier that functions as adoor, and in fact a purposefully constructed thermal barrier may not berequired and instead merely having an air gap over compartment 12 may insome situations be sufficient for effective operation of the vendingmachine, since cold air sinks, and therefore tends to stay withincompartment 12 when left undisturbed.

As shown in FIG. 3, compartment 12 includes therein a plurality ofdivider walls 15 positioned so as to form a plurality ofsub-compartments 16. Sub-compartments 16 are adapted for storingarticles 18 that need to be frozen or refrigerated,(such as ice cream orother foods) in the cooled environment of compartment 12 until they areselected to be dispensed by a user of vending machine 10. To aid clarityof illustration, only two of sub-compartments 16 are shown to be filledwith articles 18, although in normal operation, the sub-compartments 16would be filled to near the top with articles 18 upon restocking ofmachine 10 by an operator, and sub-compartments 16 would be graduallydepleted of the articles as the machine 10 is used by its customers. Theair barrier 19 of the present invention is shown in FIG. 3 in a raisedposition for restocking of compartment 12, and will be described ingreater detail later in the description.

In operation, after a user of the vending machine has inserted theproper payment and made a valid selection of an item stored in thevending machine (usually based on a graphical display illustrated on thefront door of the machine, not shown), a control mechanism 26 of machine10, of conventional design, generates control signals which causefreezer door 14 to become raised, via a rack 27 which is raised/loweredby a reversible motor 28 for pivotally engaging, and correspondinglyraising/lowering, door 14. Further details of the freezer dooropening/closing mechanism can be found in my published U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/402,174 filed Mar. 27, 2003, incorporated hereinby reference. The control mechanism then causes an article pickupcarriage 20 having a suction hose 22 and pickup head 24 hangingtherefrom, to be laterally positioned over a predetermined one of thesub-compartment 16 in which at least one of the selected articles 18have been stored. Next, the control mechanism 26 causes a motor (notshown) in carriage 20 to operate a drive roller arrangement in contactwith hose 22, so that the article pickup head 24 is controllably loweredinto the selected compartment 22, suction generated by a blower motor(not shown) is conducted thereto via hose 22, and an article 18 storedin the selected sub-compartment 16 thereby becomes secured to thearticle pickup head 24. The motor in carriage 20 is operated again, thistime in a reverse direction, so as to extract article pickup head 24with the selected article from compartment 16, and then deposit theselected article 18 in a customer retrieval area (not shown, butcustomarily an area near the bottom of the front door of machine 10), byremoving the suction force from pickup head 24 when the pickup head 24is in positioned over the open top of the customer retrieval area.

In view of the public availability of my above-noted US patent and mymore recent embodiments of robotic vendors such as shown in myPCT/US01/16894 (Publication No. WO 01/95276), filed in English,designation the United Sates, and also incorporated herein byreference), no further description of how to make and use a vendingmachine of the type described so far, is considered necessary.

An important function of freezer door 14 is to provide a thermal barrierbetween the inside of freezer 12, and the remaining area inside ofhousing 11. The thermal barrier helps keep the cool/dry conditioned airthat is inside the freezer separate from the ambient air, which is bothinside and outside of the housing 11. However, during normal machineoperation, thermal barrier provided by door 14 between the cooled andunconditioned ambient areas, is opened and closed many times in order todispense the articles stored in compartment 12. Each opening and closingcauses/allows air currents to repeatedly introduce unconditioned airfrom housing 11 into the cooled and conditioned air environment ofcompartment 12. Although cold air is heavier than warm air, and tends tostay in the storage compartment 12 when the door 14 is opened, typicallythere is some unwanted mixing of the ambient air with the conditionedair at the top of the storage compartment 12 and near access opening 13.This unwanted mixing is at least partially due to air currents caused bythe opening and closing of door 14 (especially if it comprises a singlepiece hinged lid), as well as movements of the picker head, and otherparts of machine 10, thereby introducing unwanted heat and moisture intothe freezer compartment.

The introduction of warm air into compartment 12 is obviouslyundesirable, since its contact with the stored articles willincrementally raise their temperature, as well as the overalltemperature in compartment 12, and can thereby over time degrade thequality the stored articles. The introduction of humid or moist air isalso undesirable, since the moisture in that air tends to form frost(ice) that will incrementally build-up on the internal wall dividers 15of compartment 12, and can thereby offset proper positioning of dividers15 and the stored articles 18, and consequently improper operation ofmachine 10. Additionally, the formation of the frost reduces the thermaland operational efficiency of the freezer, as well as reducing theinternal size of compartment 12. Although most of this unwanted hotand/or humid air comprises, and therefore changes with, the ambient airconditions at the location of machine 10, even on days when the ambientair condition at the location is favorable, unwanted hot and/or humidair is necessarily being generated by the normal operation of the abovedescribed compressor and condenser components of the freezer 12.

Accordingly it is one object of the present invention to reduce thisunwanted mixing of the unconditioned ambient air into compartment 12,irrespective of whether a physical door is used over the access opening13 of the freezer.

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention, where adisplaceable thermal barrier 19 is provided at the dispensing end, i.e.,access opening 15 of the freezer 12. It is noted that this displaceablethermal barrier would be useful in addition to the thermal barrierfunction provided by the door 14. Alternatively, in some embodiments, adoor 14 may not be required.

FIG. 2 shows barrier 19 in the closed, i.e., normal operationalposition. As shown in FIG. 4, barrier 19 comprises an outer ring-shapedportion 42, and an inner sheet like portion 44 having a plurality ofuniformly distributed opposed pairs of flexible flaps or fingers 46formed therein.

In the illustrated embodiment the shape of the opposed flaps 46 isrectangular, but other shapes could be used. It is also noted that thewidth of the rectangular flaps 44 could be made much narrower (so as toalmost approach a string-like shape) or wider (so as to approach thewidth of a single article storage sub-compartment 16). Otherorientations of the flaps are also possible, such as a perpendiculararrangement (i.e., one shifted ninety degrees from the arrangement shownherein), or even a radial arrangement of the flaps, located in one ormore sections of portion 44, as may be appropriate for the location andshape of a corresponding sub-compartment aligned thereunder.

Additionally, although in the illustrated embodiment the flaps arearranged in opposed pairs, since this arrangement results in the opposedends of the flaps meeting at the center of the article storagesub-compartments 16 that are aligned thereunder, other arrangements arepossible and may be particularly advantageous in some environments, suchas a single longer flap in place of each opposed pair of flaps.

It is noted that the use of longer flaps in the place of opposed pairsof flaps would result in a deflection depth during dispensing that isgreater than the deflection depth of an opposed pair of flaps.Additionally, due to the flexibility of the flaps 44, even in theirstead state condition they will have a normal tendency to droop, and thegreater the length of the flap, the greater the depth of the droop.Having a short deflection depth is generally advantageous since itleaves more space under the barrier for the articles to be stackedhigher in the article storage sub-compartments 16. For at least thesereasons, longer flaps may not be desirable in some situations. Thus,some “dead space” between the underside of barrier and the top ofsub-compartments 16 is desirable so as to provide for the deflection ofthe flaps 44 during dispensing, as well as for establishing asubstantially trapped, and therefore stagnant air gap above the articlestorage sub-compartments 16. This air gap tends to isolate and insulatethe conditioned air environment inside compartment 12 from the ambientand unconditioned air environment inside the remainder of housing 11.

In operation, when the picker head 24 is lowered into a selectedsub-compartment 16 to retrieve a selected article, only those flaps 46which are in that portion 44 that are in the downward path of the pickerhead 24 will be deflected inward by the weight of the picker head 24,while the remainder of the flaps are not deflected. Similarly, when theselected article 18 is removed from the sub-compartment 16, only thoseflaps that are positioned over that sub-compartment 16 holding theselected article 18 will be deflected outward to allow for the passagetherethrough of the picker head and selected article secured thereto.The flexibility of the flaps 46 is adapted to be sufficient so that thesuction force holding article 18 to the picker head 24 is not overcome.After the pickup head and secured article have been fully removed fromthe sub-compartment 16, the flaps 46 are pre-biased so as to return totheir normally closed position over the access opening 13, therebyquickly and effectively preventing unwanted air currents from enteringthat storage sub-compartment 16. Additionally, the flaps 46 positionedover the open tops of the other ones of storage sub-compartments 16 arenot displaced, and these flaps also are useful for preventing theintroduction of ambient air into these other sub-compartments 16.Thereafter, a common door 14, if one is used, would be positioned overthe top of compartment 12, for providing even further thermal isolationfor the refrigerated articles stored therein.

With the present arrangement, each time the door 14 is opened or closed,air currents created thereby, or which are merely present in the area,are substantially prevented from entering any of the sub-compartments 16inside compartment 12 by the air barrier, yet, the flaps 46 in thebarrier allow the picker head 24 and the selected articles to easilypass therethrough when it is time for dispensing an article from aparticular sub-compartment 16.

FIG. 2 a shows a detail of a retaining clip 48, wherein a spaced pair ofsaid clips 48 are glued to an inside lip of opening 13 for retaining anouter edge of portion 42 of barrier 19 in the closed position. This willprevent the upward force exerted on barrier 19 during the dispensingoperation by the removal of articles from inside sub-compartments 16,from undesirably lifting the barrier 19 from its closed position overopening 13.

However, in order to quickly and easily refill sub-compartments 16 withfresh articles 18 to be dispensed, a rear portion of barrier 19 isprovided with flexible hinge/tab portions 49 and 50. Hinges 49 and 50can be secured to a rear portion of the inside lip of opening 13 usingscrews (not shown), in order the barrier 19 can be easily replaced if itbecomes damaged.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and in detail in FIG. 3A, a hook 52 securedto the underside of door 14 is positioned so as to be able to releasableengage a front portion of barrier 19 when the barrier 19 is raised bythe operator so as to provide unencumbered access to the inside offreezer 12 for refilling it with fresh articles to be dispensed. Forreleasing barrier 19 from hook 52, slight pressure is merely applied tothe barrier so as to deform it's perimeter enough to disengage the frontportion thereof from its engagement with hook 52.

FIG. 5 shows one embodiment for forming barrier 19, and comprises anouter frame portion 42, and a sheet-like inner portion 44 having theflaps 46 formed therein. In one embodiment, frame 42 could be formedusing low-cost vacuum thermo-forming techniques, and comprise, forexample 0.035″ thick clear PVC, and portion 44 could also be formedusing low-cost vacuum thermo-forming techniques, and comprise, forexample 0.010″ thick clear PVC. It would also be desirable that the PVCbe of the type designed for use in low temperature environments, and assuch, PVC designed for use at minus 40 degrees F. is commonly available.In an alternative embodiment, it may be desirable to form barrier 19 outof a single sheet of material, instead of two pieces.

FIG. 6A illustrates a cross-section view (with hidden lines not shown)of the barrier 19 shown as comprising the assembled two portions 42 and44. Note that the hinges 49 and 50 are formed using the more flexibleand thinner material that forms portion 44, and that portion 42 has across-sectional shape that is intended to provide structural rigidity tothe assembled barrier 19. Other cross-sectional shapes could just aseasily been provided, and any specific shape is merely a matter ofdesign choice. For example, FIG. 6B illustrates an alternativeembodiment for the air barrier of the present invention, where thehinges 49 and 50 are formed by compressing a portion of portion 44during its vacuum thermoforming, so as to provide the desiredflexibility for forming the hinge areas. Additionally, in the FIG. 6Bembodiment, a simpler portion 44 is used, in that it it does not requireany vacuum thermoforming, and merely comprises a flat sheet of PVChaving the desired shape and distribution of flaps cut therein, and thencombined with frame portion 42 by, for example, using an adhesive incommonly aligned flat areas 54.

In FIGS. 6A and 6B, portions shown as 54 illustrate positions wheresubstantially flat surface areas in the two portions 42 and 44 arealigned when assembled, thereby providing locations for using, forexample an adhesive, for joining these portions together. In oneembodiment, a UV curable glue could be used, so as to allow time for theportions 42 and 44 to be properly aligned before the UV curing light isprovided for curing the adhesive.

Thus, one aspect of the invention is to provide a displaceable separatorwhich is common to the open dispensing end of a plurality of the articlestorage compartments in an article storage area, which displaceableseparator may be in addition to a further separator function, such asprovided by door 14. This will allow access to selected articles in agiven sub-compartment 16 of the article storage compartment 12 when theseparating door, if one is used, is displaced, without exposing theremainder of the storage sub-compartments 16 to the ambient environment.Additionally, such an arrangement minimizes egress of warm air into theselected sub-compartment before, during and after the article pickuphead 24 passes therethrough.

It is noted that article storage bins (not shown, but described in myabove-referenced US patent) having a shape corresponding to the shape ofsub-portions 16 could be individually removable from compartment 12.Furthermore, compartment 12 itself could be wholly or partiallyremovable from inside of housing 11 in order to facilitate reloading ofcompartment 12 will fresh articles to be vended. More specifically,compartment 12 can be mechanically mounted and electrically connectedwithin housing 11 so as to be at least partially removable therefrom,such as by the use of sliding tracks mounted between a bottom portion ofcompartment 12 and a floor portion of housing 11, so as to assistrepositioning of compartment 12 to be at least partially outside ofhousing 11, thereby facilitating access to the interior of compartment12 during re-loading of compartment 12 with fresh articles to be vended.If necessary, any electrical connection to compartment 12 required foroperating the cooling equipment associated therewith, could beselectively disconnectable, so as to facilitate the repositioning ofcompartment 12.

Many variations of this invention are possible, both in the manner offorming/attaching the displaceable thermal barrier 19 in the opening ofthe article storage compartment 12, as well as the dimensioning,structure, shape and choice of materials for the thermal barrier 19.

For example, in an alternative embodiment of the invention, thedisplaceable thermal barrier of the invention could be providedredundantly, so as to possibly further improve the thermal separation ofthe stored articles from the ambient environment. As shown in FIG. 3,the top portion of the sub-compartments 16 are recessed below the opentop of compartment 12. If the recess is great enough, two thermalbarriers spaced one above the other could be used in place of the onedescribed above. In this embodiment, the gap between the upper and lowerbarriers defines an air space which improves the thermal separationfunction provided to the articles stored inside the compartment, ascompared to the thermal separation function provided by only one thermalbarrier 19. The vertical spacing between each barrier could be such thatthe inward deflection of flaps in the upper barrier will not contact theupper side of the lower set of flaps, i.e., each set will operateindependently and the upper set can substantially close before the lowerset is opened. Alternatively, the barriers can be positioned relativelyclose to one another so that their flaps may operate in unison, yetstill advantageously defining a thermally separated barrier and air gapbetween the inside of compartment 12 and the inside of the remainder ofthe housing 11.

It is also noted that the invention described herein is not limited toany specific type of article retrieving device (such as the illustratedpickup head 24). For example, it may be desirable for the roboticpositioning mechanism to include a rotary device (R, θ) of the typeincluding an I beam of fixed length (or telescopic sections), forestablishing an “R” movement for pickup head 24, and where pivoting ofthe I beam establishes a “θ” movement. Alternatively, in otherenvironments for the invention, the pickup head positioning mechanismmay include an articulated arm or scissor system, or use a totallydifferent dispensing technique, such a the more conventional spiral wiredispenser mechanism. Other types of suitable pickup devices include amechanical claw or scoop, a magnetic attracting device, a portablesuction generator, etc.

Furthermore, other types of storage compartments are usable in theenvironment of the present invention, such as article storagecompartments including horizontally oriented stacks of stored articles,wherein the storage area has one or more vertically oriented openings atthe dispensing end thereof. Even furthermore, in some environments, theinvention may be useful with an article storage compartment that is notrefrigerated, that is, the air barrier may be useful for other reasons,such as keeping dust and dirt out of the interior of compartment 12during the times that the lid 14 is open. All that is required of thestorage/dispensing arrangement is that the selected article requirespassage through the dispensing end of an article storage compartment.

As noted above, while the present invention has been disclosed withreference to certain embodiments, numerous modifications, alterationsand changes to the described embodiments are possible without departingfrom the sphere and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, it isintended that the present invention not be limited to the describedembodiments, but be given the full scope defined by the above language,drawings and the claims which follow, as well as equivalents thereof.

1. An article dispensing apparatus comprising, a housing defining aninternal cavity, a refrigerated article storage area inside the cavity,the article storage area being subdivided into a plurality of articlestorage sub-compartments, each article storage sub-compartment having anopening at a dispensing end thereof for passage of stored articlestherethrough during a dispensing operation; and an air barrierarrangement comprising, a sheet-like member having a plurality of flapsformed therein, said sheet-like member being positioned in common withthe open dispensing ends of a plurality of the article storagesub-compartments so as to provide a thermal barrier between a cooledenvironment inside the refrigerated article storage area and theremainder of the inside of the internal cavity, and wherein asub-plurality of said flaps, including a sub-plurality of only one flap,is in alignment with a corresponding one of the article storagesub-compartments, each of said sub-plurality of flaps allowing for thepassage of stored articles therethrough during a dispensing operationfrom the corresponding one of the article storage sub-compartments thatis aligned therewith.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said airbarrier arrangement comprises a perimeter frame member formed of arelatively inflexible material which is attached to and supports thereina sheet-like member formed of a relatively flexible material.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein said flaps have one perimeter edge whichis connected in a hinged manner to the perimeter frame member, and afree edge which abuts the free edge of an opposed flap formed in thesheet-like member.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the abuttingends of the opposed flaps are substantially aligned with the center ofthe opening at the dispensing end of the corresponding sub-compartmentaligned therewith.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality offlaps of the sheet-like member are uniformly shaped and uniformlydistributed in their alignment with the article storagesub-compartments.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the plurality offlaps are formed integrally with the sheet-like member.
 7. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the flaps of the sheet-like member comprise aplurality of pairs of opposed flaps, the abutting ends of the op posedflaps being substantially aligned with the center of the opening at thedispensing end of the corresponding sub-compartment aligned therewith.8. The apparatus of claim 1, including a thermal separator which is inaddition to the air barrier arrangement, said thermal separatoroperating in common with a plurality of said sub-compartments.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 8, wherein the thermal separator comprises a doorconnected for hinged operation over a dispensing-end opening in thearticle storage area.
 10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the thermalseparator comprises a laminar flow of air.
 11. The apparatus of claim10, wherein the laminar flow of air uses cooled air.
 12. A barrierarrangement adapted for use in a vending machine apparatus includinginside the machine a refrigerated article storage compartment forstoring therein stacks of articles to be dispensed, the article storagecompartment having an opening at a dispensing end thereof for passage ofselected ones of the stored articles therethrough during a dispensingoperation, said barrier arrangement comprising: a sheet-like memberhaving a plurality of flaps formed therein, said sheet-like memberadapted for being positioned in common with the opening in the articlestorage compartment compartments so as to provide a thermal barrierbetween a cooled environment inside the refrigerated article storagecompartment and the remainder of the inside of the machine, with asub-plurality of said flaps being in alignment with a correspondingstack of the articles stored in the article storage compartment, each ofsaid sub-plurality of flaps allowing for the passage of stored articlestherethrough during a dispensing operation from the corresponding stackof the articles that is aligned therewith.
 13. The arrangement of claim12, wherein said barrier arrangement comprises a perimeter frame memberformed of a relatively inflexible material which is attached to andsupports therein a sheet-like member formed of a relatively flexiblematerial.
 14. The arrangement of claim 13, wherein said flaps have oneperimeter edge which is connected in a hinged manner to the perimeterframe member, and a free edge which abuts the fee edge of an opposedflap formed in the sheet-like member.
 15. The arrangement of claim 12,wherein the plurality of flaps of the sheet-like member are uniformlyshaped and uniformly distributed in their alignment with the stacks ofthe articles stored in the article storage compartment.
 16. Thearrangement of claim 12, wherein the flaps of the sheet-like membercomprise a plurality of pairs of opposed flaps, the abutting ends of theopposed flaps being substantially aligned with the center of the stackof the articles stored in the article storage compartment that isaligned therewith.
 17. The arrangement of claim 12, wherein theplurality of flaps are formed integrally with the sheet-like member. 18.The arrangement of claim 17, wherein the abutting ends of the opposedflaps are substantially aligned with the center of the stack of thearticles stored in the article storage compartment that is alignedtherewith.
 19. A vending machine apparatus comprising, a housingdefining an internal cavity, a refrigerated article storage compartmentlocated inside the cavity, the article storage compartment beingsubdivided into a plurality of article storage sub-compartments, eacharticle storage sub-compartment having an individual opening at adispensing end thereof which is aligned with a common opening in therefrigerated article storage compartment, said stored articles passingthrough said individual and common openings during a dispensingoperation; and a first-type thermal separator arrangement comprising, asheet-like member having a plurality of flaps formed therein, saidsheet-like member being positioned in the common in the refrigeratedarticle storage compartment, and wherein a sub-plurality of said flaps,including a sub-plurality of only one flap, is in alignment with acorresponding one of the article storage sub-compartments, each of saidsub-plurality of flaps allowing for the selective passage of storedarticles therethrough during a dispensing operation from thecorresponding one of the article storage sub-compartments that isaligned therewith.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein saidfirst-type thermal separator arrangement comprises a perimeter framemember formed of a relatively inflexible material which is attached toand supports therein a sheet-like member formed of a relatively flexiblematerial.
 21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the plurality of flapsof the sheet-like member are uniformly shaped and uniformly distributedin the sheet-like member.
 22. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein theflaps of the sheet-like member comprise a plurality of pairs of opposedflaps, the abutting ends of the opposed flaps being substantiallyaligned with the center of the opening at the dispensing end of thecorresponding sub-compartment aligned therewith.
 23. The apparatus ofclaim 19, including a second-type thermal separator which is in additionto the first-type thermal separator arrangement, said second-typethermal separator operating in common with a plurality of saidsub-compartments.
 24. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the second-typethermal separator comprises a door connected for hinged operation overthe common opening in the refrigerated article storage compartment. 25.An-article dispensing apparatus comprising, a housing defining aninternal cavity, an article storage area inside the cavity, the articlestorage area being subdivided into a plurality of article storagesub-compartments, each article storage sub-compartment having an openingat a dispensing end thereof for passage of stored articles therethroughduring a dispensing operation; and an air barrier arrangementcomprising, a sheet-like member having a plurality of pairs of opposedflaps formed therein, said sheet-like member being positioned in commonwith the open dispensing ends of a plurality of the article storagesub-compartments so that abutting ends of the opposed flaps aresubstantially aligned with the center of the opening at the dispensingend of a corresponding sub-compartment aligned therewith, and wherein asub-plurality of said flaps, including a sub-plurality of only one flap,is in alignment with a corresponding one of the article storagesub-compartments, each of said sub-plurality of flaps allowing for thepassage of stored articles therethrough during a dispensing operationfrom the corresponding one of the article storage sub-compartments thatis aligned therewith.
 26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein said airbarrier arrangement comprises a perimeter frame member formed of arelatively inflexible material which is attached to and supports thereina sheet-like member formed of a relatively flexible material.
 27. Theapparatus of claim 25, wherein the plurality of flaps of the sheet-likemember are uniformly shaped and uniformly distributed in their alignmentwith the article storage sub-compartments.